A Buffet of Recent Eats

I've had a bunch of pictures hanging around for a while, so instead of reviewing each recipe I thought I would just post the pretty pictures.  Enjoy!

Jerk Asparagus and Chickpea Piccata

Appetite for Reduction

Chicken Salad Sammy

The Best Veggie Burgers

Curried Red Bean Pilaf with Walnuts and Raisins

Vegan on the Cheap

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumb Pie 

theppk.com

Cajun Beanballs and Spaghetti

Appetite for Reduction

Thai-Style Pineapple Rice Salad

Vegan on the Cheap

Fronch Toast with mango coconut salsa

Vegan with a Vengeance

Keep the burgers coming!

I thought another post about burgers would be fitting for Memorial Day.  We've still been loving "The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet" and it seems like every recipe we try is better than the last.

Pintos and Rice Burger

This burger is so easy!  Joni even says something like, just mash all the ingredients together.  It takes no time (unless you forget to make some rice ahead of time, in which it will take you almost an hour.  Ugh.) and is so delicious.  We cooked these on our George Foreman grill, which we probably haven't used in two or three years.  They had a nice crispy, crunchy crust and were dense, but chewy on the inside-- just perfect.  We topped them with a healthy scoop of guacamole, some green onions and a few cilantro leaves.  I think these would hold up well on the grill and can't wait to make these again and share their deliciousness.

Potato Samosa Burger

I've never made a real samosa before, but we bought a big bag of potatoes from Trader Joe's, so I thought I would give this a try.  They turned out super tasty, almost like a fancy mashed potato-ish burger.  There were lots of seasonings, but next time I might even double them.  We ate this with a smear of vegan mayo.

Super Quinoa Burger
Chad did most of the work for this burger.  The ingredients are pretty simple, quinoa (2 cups!), beans, peas, cashews, tahini and a couple spices.  They are super flavorful and have very little oil, so they're a healthy choice, too.  We made these on the Foreman grill and they turned out great.  Joni also suggests that this can be used as a side if you don't form the "batter" into burgers, which is definitely something I'm going to keep in mind this summer!

Bacon Cheeseburger
We saved these to grill outside today-- with the temps over 90 and humidity through the roof, I didn't want to turn on the stove or oven and it was a good excuse to leave the air conditioning for a bit.  Plus, I worked up a sweat just kneading this dough for five minutes!  I made a few adjustments to the recipe, subbing a mix of barley and cracked wheat for the TVP and cutting the oil in half.  They have a ton of flavor going on, from the bacon (we used coconut bacon bits from AVK), peanut butter, liquid smoke, nooch and more.  After I formed the patties (which were about 1/2 c each), I stuck them in the freezer for just about 15 minutes to firm while we preheated the grill.  They held up well and since I oiled them, even got great grill marks!  They turned out perfect-- a little crunch from the grill, super flavorful and a little chewy in the center.  Next time, I might even make a double batch, just to have some extras on hand in the freezer.

Bring on the Burgers!

My latest addition to my cookbook collection is "The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet: 101 Globally Inspired Vegan Creations Packed with Fresh Flavors and Exciting New Tastes" by Joni Marie Newman that came out on May 1.  I pre-ordered it through Amazon was excited to find it at my door when I came home from school the last week in April.  This looked like it would be the perfect book for summer grilling.  Well, first of all, the book itself it gorgeous.  It's heavy for a paperback, with thick,colorful pages and pictures for about every third recipe.  To boot, the recipes are great too!

So far, we have tried three burgers:

grilled, topped and ready to eat!

Our first burger adventure was the Chipotle Sweet Potato Burger.  Chad and I love all things chipotle, so this was an easy choice.  The burger had a great texture from a combination of baked sweet potato, tofu and cashews.  We grilled these outside, which could have gone better.  Next time I will take Joni's advice and freeze the burgers before grilling them.  We had a lot of burger stuck to the grill, but they were delicious, regardless.  We topped them with avocado and tomatoes and skipped the buns.  I also made a side of black bean and rice salad with some homemade chipotle mayo.

baked to (almost) perfection

The next burger was the Jamaican Jerk Burger.  We had some leftover seitan from making Seitan Brew Stew (from American Vegan Kitchen) earlier in the week, so this burger was really easy to throw together.  I don't know if I added too much liquid or not enough dry or what I did, but this burger never really held together.  We baked it, so it wasn't a big deal, but it turned out to be a crumbly, yet tasty, burger.  We'll definitely have to experiment a bit more with this one if we want to grill it.  I enjoyed the flavor from the pineapple and hot peppers. 

Tonight we made Garlicky Ranch Potato Burgers.  I am pretty much in love with these burgers.  They were SO easy to make and were FULL of flavor, despite an ingredient list shorter than 10 ingredients.  This is definitely a recipe to keep in mind, because usually have everything on hand.  They were like bulked up, super tasty hash browns in burger form.